NBA Courtside Uniqueness & Photo of the Night: John Wall Hovers

You sit courtside at an NBA game and you must pay attention.

It’s somewhat similar to how there are certain seats in a baseball park where you must have a heightened sense of foul balls. But that’s a ball, not a person.

NBA basketball, unlike football and hockey as well, is the only pro sport where players can come in physical contact with fans. Sure, you’re thinking of Ron Artest now, but that’s not what I mean. Players from any sport are capable of going into the stands to fight fans. I mean contact during the course of play. Maybe the Lambeau Leap could classify as a unique fan-player interaction, but if you’re sitting in those seats, you have a crappy view of the field.

Sitting courtside also comes with a cost, in the wallet of course (unless you’re a blogger with a photo credential), but also in the risk of receiving the errant limbs of sweaty occupants from the tall gene pool into unknown areas of your body spilling beer and lord knows what, where. And that’s part of the fun.

Photo of the Night.

[click on images to enlarge]

No, John Wall is not photoshopped into this scene.

Wall successfully saved the ball, but where are the people?

It’s 61 seconds into the third quarter and they haven’t returned to their seats yet. Maybe they were in the VIP Lounge, jazzing it up with cats. Maybe they were in line getting drinks. Maybe they were in the John. Who knows, but people always seem to take a long time getting back to their seats after halftime. Maybe that should have been on Ted Leonsis’ list of things to accomplish: find a more efficient way to shepherd people into their seats for game-play prior to the beginning of each half (while still getting them to spend money on refreshments).

People joke about late arrivals for Heat games in Miami this season, but that problem has long plagued Wizards games. Early in his first season before things got crazy, Flip Saunders remarked that fans weren’t showing up early to games to provide a shot of energy into the arena, saying it was unlike what he experienced in Detroit. Of course, that was probably when Flip still had playoff hopes for Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison, Brendan Haywood, Gilbert Arenas and Mike Miller … and now in Detroit they’re chanting “M-V-P” for Kobe when the Lakers come to town. Man that’s sad.

But you’d think the courtside VIPs would have especially wanted to be there to have Wall come crashing into their lap. Instead, their coats got all the glory of a good story to tell to their other coat friends, and the spilled bear.

These are Dante Cunningham’s legs.

Guy in yellow still proclaims that he is, in fact, No. 1. They guy next to him likely proclaims the man in yellow as his son. Guy to the left of Cunningham’s legs managed to save most of his beer, but with much the sacrificial spillage going on the lap of his wife/date. Good Samaritan to the far left is trying to keep the Trailblazer shoes from connecting with his neighbor’s face. NBA tumbles.

Here’s Andray Blatche practicing his hover move.

Dray’s hover-craft is usually pretty effective, but he’s still working his way back into shape, mind you. Andray did display better effort, etc. than we’re used to seeing against the Portland Trailblazers on Friday night, and Flip Saunders commended him on that in his post-game presser. As Ernie Grunfeld would say, “It’s a process.”

Ha. That pic of Dray, I know exactly what play that was. Right before this play, I told my buddy, “You know its been a long while since Dray shot the ball, I feel a Dray forced shot coming on…”. The very next play, Dray inexplicably gets the ball on the wing, puts his head down, and drives right into 2 defenders, trapping himself behind the rim while off-balanced. The picture above is Dray trapped behind the basket and doing the only thing he can do at that point: attempt to throw a pass out to the three point line. Unfortunately, the whole Blazers squad is ready to pick off the pass as they immediately recognize that Dray painted himself into a corner.

Sponsored Links

Sponsored Links

About TAI

Truth About It.net, Washington Wizards Blog, ESPN TrueHoop Network -- Following the D.C. pro basketball franchise since the 90s and covering them in blog form since 2007 -- Opinion, Analysis, Irreverence, Pictures, Video, Interviews, Photoshops, News, Video, Quotes, Shares, and all the pixels about the Washington Wizards you can imagine.